Six strategic mistakes the U.S. made in Afghanistan
Opinion by Jeff Goodson, opinion contributor
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The Russian invasion of Ukraine has wrought institutional amnesia at the White House, State and Pentagon about the war in Afghanistan. Two years ago this month, Joe Biden ignored his military advisers and abruptly abandoned the country. It was the worst strategic blunder in modern American military history.
There’s plenty of blame to go around for the war — starting, of course, with the Pashtun Taliban, who let Al Qaeda train 10,000 fighters and protected Osama bin Laden while he planned 9/11. The U.S. made six strategic mistakes, however, and that buck stops with the commander-in-chief.
The first strategic mistake was President Bill Clinton’s failure to kill bin Laden. He had the actionable intelligence and opportunity to do so, as many as nine times, from 1998 to 2000. Bin Laden’s terror attacks killed almost 3,000 Americans, and marked the start of the war.
A counterterror operation led by the CIA and the Northern Alliance started immediately thereafter. It quickly overthrew the Taliban government, pushing bin Laden and the Taliban leadership into Pakistan. It was a fast, historic, decisive victory, executed on the orders of President George W. Bush. He deserves credit for that strategic decision. The second strategic mistake, however, was his. He failed to order a sustained kinetic campaign against Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders as they found safe harbor in Pakistan. Later presidents kept the policy. Limiting the Af-Pak war to just the Afghan theater doomed the conflict to permanent stalemate.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/six-strategic-mistakes-the-us-made-in-afghanistan/ar-AA1fiAkm
